Everbody who knows me knows how much I love the sport of Boxing. It's a sport of talented warriors and unique personalities that come from all walks of life on this earth. One of the things that intrigued me about the sport at a young age was always a sense of great nationalism amongst the fans and the fighters themselves. I remember being about 5 years old the first time I watched Rocky IV and saw a giant Russian statue-like character named "Ivan Drago" beat the fast and flamboyant American "Apollo Creed" until he collapsed and died in the ring. Apollo had entered the fight in Las Vegas looking like he got jammed through a machine that prints out American Flags (along with legendary soul singer James Brown singing his classic tune "Living in America"), while the Russian stood there like a man chisled out of granite and with pure ice running through his veins. You all should know the rest of the story but basically, after Apollo dies, Rocky goes on to defend his friend's honor by fighting Drago in front of an unruly crowd in Russia...and well, yeah... you get the idea.

Obviously, Ivan Drago and Apollo Creed are fictional characters, but the description of how their rivaly played out is something that is still strikingly accurate in the real world of Professional Boxing, even 25 years later. Fast forward to 2010, and we are back to talking about the one story in Boxing that is consuming the entire sport; "Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao". The fight has been on the minds of fans for over 3 years, and after two rounds of failed negotiations this year, fans from both sides have seemingly grown tired of the waiting game.

We know Mayweather is no stranger to saying things that rub people the wrong way, and even when he is seemingly on the right side of the argument he has found ways to damage his image with fans with one over the top comment after another. However, this time Floyd crossed a social boundry that wasn't as defined 25 years ago when Rocky IV came out. In today's society, political correctness is highly touted in public, even though behind closed doors most people still laugh at stereotypes. Still, when somebody takes to a public forum and makes negative remarks that includes anything about ANY one group of people, there are going to be those who automatically head to the default response of labeling the person a "racist". Personally, I don't think Mayweather is actually a racist, but I will say that I think what he said was in poor taste and it's not going to do anything to help his reputation right now. If this is another power play by Floyd to build up hype for a showdown sometime next year, it's going to work, but he didn't have to do it like this.

Boxing fans who are old enough, and those who are well studied, will remember Muhammad Ali's apology to Joe Fraizer in his autobiography "Soul of a Butterfly" for saying all the nasty and negative things he said about Joe during their bitter rivaly during the 1970's. To this day, there is still controversy over weather Joe has truly forgiven Ali. Boxing rivals should not be LIFE rivals, it's really not supposed to work that way. I hope that Floyd (a huge fan of Muhammad Ali) remembers that as he continues to build up hype for this super-fight.

So, WHAT DID FLOYD SAY?!?!?

I'm not going to bother typing out what Floyd said, so if you read the last 3 paragraphs in anicipation of it, I apologize. However, instead of me saying it, I figured I would post the video for all to hear Floyd's comments and to make their own determinations about it.

Are you going to completely ignore everything I wrote and then ask people to listen to RA the Rugged Man? Really? Let's go one step further, was Mayweather SCARED of Mosley like RA claimed?

Seriously bro...should we talk about what a lot of Pinoy fans have to say about African American fans?

Because if you ask me, I would guess that Floyd and his less than civilized friends got sick of "n*gger jokes and KFC references".

I'm not referencing RA's comments about Floyd or asking people to care what RA said. I'm talking about how Floyd responded with "Because I'm black?" Floyd makes racism claims and it looked as if you were like, "huh?" so I posted a couple of references and just happened to remember his HBO comments and the interview with RA.

And yes, the Pinoy fans are being racist too, it's really annoying reading their comments on the message boards complaining about Floyd being racist, while many of them are bigots themselves. It's stupid.

It's become more like childish drama rather than anything to do with boxing.

I'm not referencing RA's comments about Floyd or asking people to care what RA said. I'm talking about how Floyd responded with "Because I'm black?" Floyd makes racism claims and it looked as if you were like, "huh?" so I posted a couple of references and just happened to remember his HBO comments and the interview with RA.

And yes, the Pinoy fans are being racist too, it's really annoying reading their comments on the message boards complaining about Floyd being racist, while many of them are bigots themselves. It's stupid.

It's become more like childish drama rather than anything to do with boxing.

Yeah, I was like "huh", because I dont really see what it has to do with what happened here. Floyd has made comments about racial issues in the sport of boxing, and to be quite honest he is right about a lot of what he says. Yeah, it seems silly to some people when a black person says "because I'm black?" but it's not always a cop out. I apologize if you felt like I was snapping back at you, but RA the Rugged Man is a tool in my opinion and that interview was a hit job. Floyd thought he was doing an interview with a friendly station and he got blindsided by that idiot who was only there to promote his crappy cd.

As for this situation, Floyd apologized in the press yesterday and insists it wasn't serious and he was just having fun trash talking. That's going to be good enough for some people and mean nothing to others. Personally, I think what he said was in poor taste and the damage is done, but a least he made legit effort to explain himself and apologize.

You are right, it is a big long drawn out drama between the fans and the fighters, but so was Ali/Frazier and Sugar Ray Leonard/Marvin Hagler.

Yeah, I was like "huh", because I dont really see what it has to do with what happened here. Floyd has made comments about racial issues in the sport of boxing, and to be quite honest he is right about a lot of what he says. Yeah, it seems silly to some people when a black person says "because I'm black?" but it's not always a cop out. I apologize if you felt like I was snapping back at you, but RA the Rugged Man is a tool in my opinion and that interview was a hit job. Floyd thought he was doing an interview with a friendly station and he got blindsided by that idiot who was only there to promote his crappy cd.

As for this situation, Floyd apologized in the press yesterday and insists it wasn't serious and he was just having fun trash talking. That's going to be good enough for some people and mean nothing to others. Personally, I think what he said was in poor taste and the damage is done, but a least he made legit effort to explain himself and apologize.

You are right, it is a big long drawn out drama between the fans and the fighters, but so was Ali/Frazier and Sugar Ray Leonard/Marvin Hagler.

No harm, no foul; just mentioning the irony of Floyd attacking Pac when he claims being the victim of oppression.

No harm, no foul; just mentioning the irony of Floyd attacking Pac when he claims being the victim of oppression.

Oppression and stereotypes are two completely different things, especially in the context of one being in the interest of smack-talk to hype a fight. It doesn't excuse what Floyd said, just like it didn't excuse Chael Sonnen when he made comments about Brazil and Ed Sores.

However, Floyd wasn't trying to oppress Pacquiao or claim that one race was superior to another, he was just using stereotypes that most people laugh at behind closed but hypocritically get bent out of shape about when it's in a public forum. I will openly admit, I laughed when I heard what Floyd said, but I still think it was inappropriate for him to do it, especially with the way our media shapes things today.

I said the same thing about Chael's comments. It didn't "offend" me that he made them, but he should know where the line is, and that kind of attention could reflect negatively on the UFC.